No, Katla is not about to blow her top, and no, this Icelandic volcano is not about to shut down European airspace; although you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise if you had seen the hyperventilating headlines in the British press last month. The real story is far more intriguing.

Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds, and her colleagues have discovered that Katla is pumping out vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Gas measurements taken above the ice-capped volcano (using aircraft), combined with modelling, reveal that Katla is one of the biggest volcanic sources of carbon dioxide (CO2), releasing about 20,000 tonnes every day – approximately 1% of the UK’s daily CO2 emissions.

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Their findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, indicate that this explosive volcano likely has magma sitting deep down in its roots. By continuing to monitor the CO2, the scientists hope to be able to decipher when more magma arrives, and forewarn if it starts building up to an eruption. “Scientists have seen this previously happen at Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, where carbon dioxide emissions increased a few years before an eruption happened. Now we need to see if Katla will give us a similar calling card,” Ilyinskaya said.